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Some games play like clockwork, others like treacle. Give players the right set of cogs and they're empowered to play the game as they see fit. Treacle games are the opposite—they're a constant, sticky battle against the mechanical systems, and, well, I've probably laboured this metaphor long enough. The point is that Dishonored 2, like its predecessor, is a game of slick, interlocking mechanics that make it incredibly rewarding to play. Want to take on a room full of henchman with a pair of pistols? Go for it. Want to sneak around the outside, clamber across rooftops, and take enemies by surprise with a well-timed possession? You can do that too.

And it wasn't just the fantastical powers you could play with that made Dishonoredso special, but rather how those powers combined with smart level design. There may have been hints at paths to take through a level, but they were never forced on players. Dishonored 2 continues this clever combination. I had a brief but enjoyable hands-on set in a mansion built on an actual clockwork foundation that could be spun and twisted to change the building in all manner of weird and wonderful ways.

Further Reading

This is the fourth mission in the game, with the goal being to take advantage of highly malleable infrastructure to put an end to experiments being carried out by Kirin Jindosh—a man of Leonardo Da Vinci-like invention and Patrick Bateman-like sadism—and rescue scientist Anton Sokolov, who returns from the first game.

Pulling on levers makes walls spin, platforms rise, and entire rooms switch out for new ones. It really did feel as though I was exploring a giant doll house made by Da Vinci, with large, tangible struts, wheels, and crank shafts visibly shifting the world around me in a slow, methodical, and logical way. It's a work of mechanical beauty and a direct continuation of the Victorian-tinged steampunk aesthetic of the original.

Check out Jindosh's mechanical mansion in action.

The mansion was initially daunting, the levers tempting me to alter the floor plan before I'd even committed the default layout to memory. But it bestowed upon its creator and owner, Jindosh, a personality of whimsical excess and a keen intelligence. Anyone who could design and construct such an adaptable labyrinth is someone with the wit and imagination to cause others serious harm. Video games have a habit of telling rather than showing when it comes to communicating character motivations, but Dishonored 2's use of the clockwork mansion is an example of how to do it right.

Once I'd played through the mission a few times, got a read on which levers did what, and saw how it was possible to jump through the gaps in the walls as they changed position, I realised just how dense and complex the environment was. It's entirely possible, for instance, to reach the inner laboratory housing Jindosh within a couple of minutes of entering the mansion, completing the primary objective seconds later. Finding out which levers to pull and which leaps to make, though, takes significantly longer. As with the very best puzzles, your brain needs to do some work.

The fun is not necessarily in doing things as quickly as possible, but rather in using the levers to become the master of your realm. With the correct choices and timing you can avoid enemies entirely, unearth secret areas to loot their treasures, and combine your manipulation of bricks and mortar with the altogether more corporeal powers of Dishonored 2's protagonists.

The first Dishonored hero, Corvo Attano, returns and is playable, but you also have the option of stepping into the shoes of Emily Kaldwin. Lady Kaldwin was the young heir to the throne who was kidnapped in the opening moments of the first game, the woman whom Corvo was eventually tasked with rescuing. Fifteen years have passed since those events, with Emily now having learned her own set of super powers of the sort that served Corvo so well.

Bethesda released a Dishonored 2 Karnaca art gallery, featuring a selection of images with descriptions from Arkane's art director, Sébastien Mitton. The images and descriptions are included here for your perusal.

The bloodflies' ecosystem is a good example of where art mixes with story; showing that animation and gameplay can work well together.

"Imagine Havana or Genoa with spots downtown where you can see giant trees too big to be felled”: this was the brief given to the artist Laurent Gapaillard, who’s one of the most talented pencil artists in the world.

The Shindaerey Peak serves as a natural landmark and helps players orient themselves, no matter where they are in the city of Karnaca. Here, the shot is taken at the train stop before the entrance to the house of Kirin Jindosh (a mad inventor), which overlooks the entire city.

We really enjoy creating meaningful environments and the Dust District is a great example of this: a giant peak with silver mines at its base, a wind corridor that leads to a district at its end, and industrialisation of the district with giant windmills—these were the starting points of the development of this area in Karnaca.

Built on the vestige of an old fort, the Palace of the Duke is the result of the clash between classical and noble materials with modern lines.

Karnaca is the result of years of urbanisation including different waves of settlers from Morley, Tyvia, and Gristol which helps to give it, in addition to the natives, a great lineup of quirky faces.

Thanks to the Serkonan Cartographic Society, some of our maps are topographic! The last wave of settlers was people from Gristol, who came in with money. They started a more structured urbanisation with boulevards, a hidden harbour, and even a big canal splitting the island in two, from Quintana Gates to the far North.

Because the wind and dust can be so violent that it damages Karnaca’s buildings, we came up with the idea of giving buildings in the Dust District diamond-shaped blocks to break the strength of the wind on its surfaces. We then added some wind panels to the edge of these blocks, which is what you can see in this image.

With this image we wanted to mix a British curiosity cabinet with a rich interior from Cuba or Italy. The goal was to create a contrast between Dunwall (location of the first Dishonored game) and Karnaca (primary location of Dishonored 2) in terms of tone and lighting.

The Dreadful Wale is not just a nice shell of a boat, but a real ship with rooms to explore, which the player will visit many times throughout the game. Like the Hound Pits Pub in the first game, the Dreadful Wale serves as your hub between the different missions.

Here we can grasp the inspiration from our photo trips to Barcelona and see how our visuals are influenced by how the player will move around the environment.

Perhaps it's because they're fresh and Corvo's are the same as before, but Emily's powers were more interesting in this isolated segment of the game. Far Reach is similar to Corvo's returning Blink ability in that it allows you to cross long distances almost instantaneously. However, where Blink moves you invisibly Far Reach doesn't and, as such, you need to be much more observant of your surroundings before making a move if stealth is high on your priority list.

Where Far Reach makes up for its clandestine shortcomings is in its greater versatility, a trait that mirrors the clockwork mansion itself and helps Emily feel like the superior choice of character for the mission. Aim Far Reach at an enemy and you can reel them quickly in towards you, allowing you to drag guards around corners to choke them out in peace and quiet. In a way, then, the ability promotes a stealthy style, albeit one built on making the first move as opposed to avoiding conflict altogether.

The other two of her powers I used were Domino and Shadow Walk. Shadow Walk is entirely built around staying invisible. Emily takes the form of a crawling demon made of smoke that scratches and pulls its way across the floor with the kind of awkward limb movements that will be familiar to anyone that has seen Japanese movies such as The Ring or The Grudge. You're undetectable with the power activated, but that's balanced against the fact that it can only be used for a very short length of time.

Domino is perhaps the most interesting ability and the one that most rewards creative thinking. It allows Emily to bind the minds of others to one another, with any act performed on one affecting them all. Choke one Dominoed enemy and they all pass out; kill one and you kill them all. Experimentation with what can be achieved by performing these group acts, or by having one poor soul unwittingly kill themselves and subsequently kill everyone, is sure to take up a lot of curious players' time. I doubt it'll be long before YouTube searches along the lines of "Dishonored 2 Domino Ideas" will be popular.

Corvo's ability to teleport across gaps, push enemies back with a blast of wind, and temporarily slow the passing of time feel insipid and conventional by comparison. Indeed, other than submitting to the nostalgia I still hold for the character, I'm hard-pressed to define a reasonable argument for opting to play as him.

With the demo taking place during the fourth mission, there is the possibility that more powers are unlocked and that these will make Corvo more attractive. There also exists the potential for events to be interpreted differently depending on who you play as. While the mission objectives are the same whether playing as Emily or Corvo, the tone and dialogue with which Jindosh speaks changes. Having played such a small slice of the wider whole, I can't comment on how much the two character paths differ, if at all, but it is possible that there are narrative rewards for playing with both of them.

More immediately recognisable is the fact that there are plenty of distinctly different ways to complete objectives. Jindosh can be killed in order to make sure he is stopped, or you can complete your task without assassinating him. Sparing his life requires you to solve a simple puzzle by finding the relevant clues and putting them into action, but I'm not going to spoil the mystery by revealing what it is that you take from Jindosh in place of his life. Let's just say that everybody has something that they fear losing more than their life. And having seen what happens, saving his life might not be the more merciful action.

Further Reading

Perhaps the greatest plaudit I can give Dishonored 2 is that, even after just a couple of hours of playing, I was well and truly hooked and curious to explore the game's inner workings and uncover its secrets. I want to see how far Emily's abilities can be pushed and whether the other levels can live up to the intricacy of the clockwork mansion. Roll on November 11.

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John Robertson
Based out of London, England, John is a freelance writer specialising in video games and popular culture. When not locked in front of a computer he's glued to the viewfinder of his camera. Canon only. Twitter@robertson_john